July 25 (Bloomberg) -- The Democratic Republic of Congo’s
Katanga province raised its tax on copper and cobalt
concentrates to $100 per metric ton from $60 as the country
prepares to ban their export at the end of this year.

“We needed a way to discourage companies from continuing
to export concentrates, so we raised the tax,” Valery Mukasa,
chief of staff for Mines Minster Martin Kabwelulu, said
yesterday in an interview in Kinshasa, the capital.

The Central African nation is trying force mining companies
to increase the value of their exports by fully processing
minerals within the country’s borders, Mukasa said.

Congo was the world’s eighth-largest producer of copper and
the biggest producer of cobalt last year, according to the U.S.
Geological Survey. At least 13 companies exported concentrates
of copper, cobalt, or a copper-cobalt concentrate last year,
according to Katangan provincial Mines Ministry statistics.

Katangan Governor Moise Katumbi first implemented the $60
per ton tax in 2010 after a previous attempt by the Mines
Ministry to ban the export of concentrated minerals. Katanga
will continue to collect the tax directly, Mukasa said. He was
uncertain whether revenue would be shared with the national
government.

Congo is revising its mining code, which currently allows
for the export of concentrated minerals.

Miners and Congo’s main business association, la Federation
des Enterprises du Congo, have opposed the ban, saying the
country does not generate enough electricity to process all its
mineral production within its borders. Power shortages have
forced some miners to install generators or buy electricity from
neighboring Zambia to run their processing plants.